Extended discovery of WebLogic

Oracle WebLogic server is an enterprise-class J2EE application server. Oracle WebLogic server is part of the Oracle WebLogic platform and supports Oracle, IBM DB2, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, and other JDBC-compliant databases.

Discovering WebLogic

In BMC Discovery (prior to v11.0) populated JMX attributes (in particular: jmx_enabled and jmx_port) are used for Weblogic Extended discovery . Starting from BMC Discovery 11.0 JMX attributes are just populated but aren't used for Extended Discovery any more.

BMC Atrium Discovery uses the BEA.WebLogicApplicationServer pattern to discover a WebLogic application server instance and its version, to identify the JMX port, and most importantly for extended discovery, to determine whether JMX access is enabled.

Extended WebLogic discovery attempts to discover detailed information related to the WebLogic application server such as the J2EE domain, the J2EE applications running on the WebLogic application server, and the JDBC resources that the WebLogic application server is using. To do this, an additional pattern, WebLogic.ExtendedDiscovery, initially determines whether JMX access is enabled, and the JMX port has been identified. It then attempts to determine whether the WebLogic application server version is supported (see 749285289). If the WebLogic server version cannot be determined using a JMX query, then pattern execution ends.

If the JMX port has not been identified, the extended WebLogic discovery uses port 7001 by default. The WebLogic.ExtendedDiscovery pattern then queries the WebLogic Administration Server's JMX monitoring agent for details about the J2EE applications, application servers, databases, database servers, mail servers, web servers, J2EE domain, and J2EE clusters. Information returned is stored in the J2EEApplication Component, J2EEDomain Collection, JDBCResource Detail, JavaMailResource or JMSResource Detail nodes.

Creation of a JDBCResource Detail node triggers the CreateJDBCToDatabaseSI pattern that searches the BMC Atrium Discovery model for a software instance (SI) representing that database. If the database SI is found, the pattern creates relationships between the WebLogic Application Server SI and the nodes representing the database (see 749285289). If the host that the database runs on has not been scanned, no further work is undertaken. The WebLogic.ExtendedDiscovery.DiscoverWebLogic pattern is fully described in Configipedia.

Creation of a J2EEApplication Component node does not trigger any further operations.

If extended discovery fails, it falls back to using a host login and extracts information from the WebLogic configuration files to create and populate a WebLogic Application Server SI and its attributes.

Configuration Options

There are several configuration options available for this Extended Discovery depending on ADDM version:

• use_default_port := true; - allows to use the default JMX port if a specific port was not discovered
• default_port := "7001"; - allows to use default JMX port
• use_deep_search := false; - allows to use search for WebLogic App Server SI within all infrastructure if other search queries failed
• use_config_file := true; - allows to use  config-file-based approach for Extended modelling of Weblogic if Phurnace method failed

Requirements for a full discovery

For a full discovery of WebLogic you need the following credentials:

• WebLogic host login credentials
• WebLogic application server login credentials (JMX) — see 749285289 

Database nodes and relationships

The relationships are created based on the way that the database type is represented. (For example, an Oracle database is represented as an SI whereas a MySQL database server is represented as an SI and the individual databases by Detail nodes with contained by relationships to the database server SI).

Supported product versions

The following WebLogic versions are supported:

• Oracle WebLogic Server 8.1
• Oracle WebLogic Server 9.x
• Oracle WebLogic Server 10.3 to 11g

Extended WebLogic discovery results

The following screen shows a successfully scanned WebLogic instance that is using an Oracle database server as its datasource. If a Microsoft SQL Server database is used, the Database Elements This Depends On row is displayed to indicate the actual database, because in this case the database server is represented by an SI. See 749285289 for more information.

The attributes section of the WebLogic SI contains sections for Components, Details, and Collections.

• Components are deployed EAR and WAR modules on WebLogic
• Details are resources on WebLogic. These might be application specific or globally defined. They can be one of the following:
  • Java Mail Resources
  • JDBC Resources
  • JMS Resources
• Collections are J2EE Domains on WebLogic

Configuring extended WebLogic discovery

The extended WebLogic discovery is enabled by the activation of the WebLogic.ExtendedDiscovery pattern. This pattern is activated by default in a new installation of BMC Atrium Discovery, but in an upgraded appliance, it must be activated manually.

To use extended WebLogic discovery, you must configure the credentials for the WebLogic application server in the Credentials tab.

To configure extended WebLogic discovery

1. Ensure that the WebLogic.ExtendedDiscovery pattern is activated.
2. From the Discovery home page, click Credentials.
3. Click the Middleware tab.
4. Click the Oracle WebLogic credential group heading.
5. Click the Credentials tab.

6. From the Credentials tab, select Create.
   Enter the following information:

   Field	Description
   Name	Enter a name for the Credential (For example, ExtendedWebLogic).
   Description	Enter a free text description of the Credential.
   Username	The logon ID with which to connect to the WebLogic application server. You must specify a logon ID that has a security role of Monitor, Operator, Deployer, or Admin.
   Password	The password corresponding to the username above.
   IP Address	The IP address of the WebLogic host. This option can be one of the following: • an IP address (10.10.10.3) • a range specification (10.10.10.* or 10.10.1-5.* or 10.10.10.0/24) • a regular expression matching an IP address (.* or 10.10.10.(23|25))

7. To save the details, click Apply.
   The new credential is displayed.